We bought our first home together during Covid Because a lot of her work involved zoom calls she set up one of the rooms as her office. For the most part I had no use for it and that’s just how it was. After we separated I took all of her things and put them in that room so that the house wasn’t full of emotional triggers. And I’ve been living like that for much of this year.

Fast forward to yesterday. She finally came with a van to move the rest of her belongings. I chose to stay in the house just in case anything came up but otherwise didn’t talk to her. The dog was so excited to see the person that was effectively his mom for the first time in months and possibly the last. And I found myself fighting back tears almost immediately.

Two hours later she was gone and I walked into a now completely empty room and suddenly the house feels as empty of the day she walked out of our marriage. So I sat on that floor openly weeping for a good 10 minutes… I don’t know. Work is here. My friends are an hour away in a higher cost of living area and selling the house would mean giving up the millennial dream of homeownership for the foreseeable future. I fucking miss the woman I married.